SOUTH BEND – Build it or buy it?
That remains an unanswered question for Notre Dame basketball as it seeks the best way to construct a roster, not for the long haul of two, three, four, or even sometimes five straight seasons as was once the case in the sport, but for this year. Only this year. Then next year. Only next year.
The game, and all it entails when it comes to recruiting, has become a year-by-year enterprise. What works for one season might not necessarily be best or even work for the next. Nobody around college basketball may know that better than Notre Dame.
Two recruiting cycles ago, back when assembling a college basketball roster didn’t require an eight-figure commitment, Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry and athletic director Pete Bevacqua believed it best to go old school to be good, to be relevant, for roster construction. That meant building in a way few teams build today – through high school recruiting, and then keeping those kids for two, three, four, sometimes now even for five seasons.
Bevacqua, Shrewsberry, and Notre Dame went all in with that model, as underscored by the program’s four-man recruiting class haul in the fall of 2024. Going the recruit high school kids and develop them route landed them a class that included a McDonald’s All-American (Jalen Haralson), a kid, like Shrewsberry, from Indianapolis Cathedral High School (Brady Koehler), a wing guard considered among the elite shooters in his class (Ryder Frost), and Tommy Ahneman, the Gatorade player of the year in North Dakota in his junior year.
At one point, after commitments from Koehler, Haralson, and Frost, and for days after Ahneman was the last in the fold, that recruiting class was considered No. 1 in the nation. At Notre Dame. Recruiting and development life was good.
Eventually, it would become a consensus Top 10 class. A class that would grow together, be together, and win together. The future for Notre Dame basketball was sunlight bright. Or so it seemed.
Then the 2025-26 regular season happened, one that saw Notre Dame finish with a losing overall (13-18) and league record (4-14) for a third straight Shrewsberry season. For the first time in program history, Notre Dame did not qualify for the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament. In April, Haralson and Frost hit the transfer portal, with bigger paydays elsewhere the likely reason. Koehler considered jumping as well. Ahneman remained a blank slate having sat out his freshman year with a left knee injury.
After a fine recruiting haul in the fall of 2024, Notre Dame pivoted in the spring of 2026 to rebuild its roster. Quickly. High school recruits were not options, not so many immediate holes to fill. Transfer portal guys – old transfer portal guys – were in.
Notre Dame added a program-high six players from the transfer portal in the spring. Four are graduate seniors with at least two and often three previous stops. First, go young. Now, go old. What’s next?
Depends on the market, said Shrewsberry.
“When we started (recruiting) a few years ago, there was no transfer portal,” he said. “Then the transfer portal went wild. And then the money went wild. You’ve got to continue to adjust your plan as the game is changing.”
That means for one cycle, like this past spring, Notre Dame might lean on the transfer portal to do what every college basketball team looks to do – get old and stay old. There might be a year, maybe like this coming one, when Notre Dame pays closer attention to high school juniors and seniors.
While some Power Five programs have all but ignored high school kids as prospects, that door will never shut at Notre Dame. It cannot. For myriad reasons.
“You have to take high school guys,” Shrewsberry said. “They’re cost-controlled. It’s like a rookie contract (in the NBA). It allows you to do more in the transfer portal with the money you have.”
Or, in the case of Notre Dame, money you don’t have. While exact dollar amounts are still too tough to tally, the consensus is that Notre Dame is in the bottom third of the 18-team ACC in terms of dollars invested in its roster. The Irish are closer to the bottom than the middle. The top of the league, the elite of the league, that’s another world. Might as well be Mars.
Last season, with that highly touted recruiting class, Notre Dame went young, and it didn’t work. This season, with six transfer portal players aboard, Notre Dame will go old. Will it work?
Another question that awaits an answer.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact Noie at tnoie@sbtinfo.com
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: This is the recruiting challenge that Notre Dame basketball now faces
Reporting by Tom Noie, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Tom Noie, South Bend Tribune | USA TODAY Network
